Sunday, August 14, 2011

Melon Pan

Melon pan, a soft, sweet roll encased in crispy cookie dough and scored into a cross-hatch pattern to resemble the look of melon skin captured my interest as soon as I tasted it at Narita’s Airport two years ago. It tastes so good, with the mixture of soft bread texture combined with sweet cookie on the top. I knew I would like to learn to make this adorable bread in my own kitchen. I used the recipe from MyFoodGeek. The bread turns out ok but not as soft as I wanted it to be. The next time I make this I will use the Tangzhong sweet bread dough and maybe put some filling inside the buns.

From Wikipedia

Melonpan (メロンパン meronpan?), also known as Melon pan, Melon buns or Melon bread, are sweet bakery products from Japan, but also popular in Taiwan and China. They are made from enriched dough covered in a thin layer of crisp cookie dough. Their appearance resembles a melon, such as a rock melon (cantaloupe). They are not traditionally melon flavored, [1] but in recent times it has become popular for manufacturers to add melon to melon bread. Variations exist, including some with a few chocolate chips between the cookie layer and the enriched dough layer, and non-melon versions flavored with caramel, maple syrup, chocolate, or other flavors, sometimes with syrup, whipped or flavored cream, or custard as a filling. In the case of such variations, the name may drop the word "melon" ("maple pan") or may keep it despite the lack of melon flavor ("chocolate melon pan")

1. Prepared the dough. Combined the yeast, warm water and sugar and let it stand for 5 minutes until frothy. Combined the bread flour, milk powder and salt. Using a mixer with hook attachment, mix in the egg and yeast mixture. Mix until smooth and elastic. Add in the butter and continue to knead until smooth.
2. Remove the dough from the mixer and place it in a lightly oiled container and cover with plastic wrap. Let is rise for an hour at warm place or until double in size.
3. While the dough is rising, make the cookie crust. Place the butter and sugar in the mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix at high speed, scraping down the sides, until the butter and sugar are fully combined and turn to a pale yellow color.
4. Incorporate the egg and yellow coloring (if use) at low speed. Add the flour and the baking powder and mix until just combined. Remove from the bowl, shape into a log, wrap tightly in plastic, and refrigerate until firm.
5. Punch down the dough to remove the air. Remove the bread dough from the bowl and cut into nine equal pieces. Roll each dough piece into a tight ball and set aside.
6. Remove cookie crust from refrigerator and cut into nine equal pieces. Roll each piece of cookie dough into circle. Refrigerate the round disc again to firm them up slightly. Re-shape the bread dough again and cover the top with a piece of the cookie dough. Tuck the ends underneath. Roll the cookie dough surface over the sugar.
7. With a butter knife, make shallow incisions to obtain a criss-cross diamond motif on the top. Set it aside to rise for an hour or double in size.
8. Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree F oven for 20 minutes or until lightly brown on the surface. Cool on wire racks.

Gert,Your buns look great..pun intended *giggles*!When you come and visit me, I'll bring you to a bakery where they sell lots of these type of pan...very delicious and we'll stuff ourselves silly, okay!

WOW WOW WOW! Melon pan is my all time favorite growing up! Your melon pan is sooo perfect looking!! I'm sure they taste good too. My friend one time baked this bread for me in my kitchen and showed me how. I didn't write down the memo (I should have!) but I remember it wasn't as hard (we used my bread maker to make dough). Your melon pan totally made me curious again to make this... Bookmarked!

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About Me

I was born and raised in Malaysia and now live in Northern California, USA with my wonderful husband Carlos. I love to bake and cook. It is very relaxing and I find my creativity flowing in the kitchen. I creates this blog to record all my cooking and baking adventures and also share my tested recipes with you.
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